Been a while since my last update, but this update is a biggie. First things first:
Update no. 1
Finished my 6 month free check up and everything was fine. They just checked various parameters, washed and cleaned the car and I was out of there. The checkup was done at Volkswagen Rajajinagar and I am quite happy with the service attentiveness so far. I guess the real test will be at the one year mark. The car has finished only 3500 kms till now. The only real niggle I seem to see right now is the front passenger seat belt seems to be a bit lose and keeps hitting against the side cladding, which is irritating in an otherwise quite and refined drive.
Update no. 2
I finally decided to go with the Dynavin N6 and bought the same through Dynavin India. Luckily for me they were running an offer at that time and was able to get the system for a shade under 50k. As some of you know, I have been looking for a good upgrade to the sound system for a while now and I was quite unhappy with the existing RCD 320 system. The RCD 320 is a system which seems to have all the connectivity options (USB, SD, AUX and bluetooth), but nothing else. Its a pathetic system for a car that costs this much. Initially I bought the RCD 510 (tried Bosch as well as Delphi, 9w2 and 9w7 bluetooth) and even though it was certainly an upgrade from the RCD 320, I could not get OPS and MID+ to work with it. The main reason for this is that VW have made some changes in the mid 2013 onwards cars and the Trendline and Comfortline no longer share the same harness as the Highline. The downgrade from the RCD 310 to the RCD 320 also means that the car comes with ISO connectors and not the Quadlock connectors.
I tried a lot of things to get the OPS and MFD+ to work, but to no avail. I spent time on forums, including the Russian/American sites, but still did not achieve anything. I tried coding through VCDS and spent a lot of time on that with Robi (thanks man #robimahanta ), but that didnt help at all. We would not be able to install Radio and Telephone in VCDS at all, try as we might.
I looked and reviewed various choices that would have the factory OEM look and feel:
1. Blaupunkt 835 - Nice system and definitely better than the RCD 320. The interface though put me off. Also the fact that the Bangalore Blaupunkt team insiste on selling only through VW, where the prices are very high as compared to those on Snapdeal. I also felt that if I was spending 1/2 a lac I rather have the Dynavin.
2. RCD 510+ 9w7 BT - Like I said, considerably cheaper option (almost half), but was not able to get the system working according to my requirements.
3. Other Android and Win CE systems from Aliexpress - Some of them are quite cheap and they are not really upto the mark. I didnt want to go for an android system as even though it has a lot more features, it has a lot more bugs as well. The win ce based systems were relatively bug free, but sound quality and warranty kept playing in my mind
Finally after 2-3 months of trying various things I finally got in touch with Vagtune, through Robi. After seeing the Dynavin in Robi's car and also the review here on Tbhp, I knew this had to be the one upgrade I could not live without (thanks are due to #ajaypjayaraj for his indepth review). The price was somewhere in the ballpark that I had thought of to start off with and it seemed to be getting glowing reviews from across the globe on various forms. Spoke to Sugesh and went ahead with the purchase after applying the discount code.
Sugesh was slated to come down to Bangalore for the opening of the new Vagtune store and I was eagerly waiting for the store to start and get my system installed. Finally this last Saturday, on the first day of the store opening, I went across and got it done. All I can say was that it was a lengthy procedure and not one I would have managed by myself, by any stretch of the imagination. There was a lot of work to be done and it took a good couple of hours. I dont want to get into the details of the works that need to be done as that would be kind of pointless to most of us. Suffice to say it was very very difficult and needed a lot of technical and practical experience. Sugesh with his team did it as quick as they could and made sure that not a single cable was cut or crimped. Nothing that can cause a warranty issue in the future. Everything was done slowly and carefully, with a lot of personal attention from Sugesh and Amit. There are easier ways to achieve the same outcome, but that would involve cutting and crimping and that was something that was not even discussed, even once.
Finally got everything sorted out and all I can say is that I was happy that I went with Dynavin and Vagtune. Superb product, superb service and everything done with a level of patience and professionalism that is rarely seen in this business. Everything works perfectly, and even the GPS antenna has been installed inside the system area and still works perfectly. The system comes with all the bells and whistles and even a couple of colleagues who own the latest gen BMW 3 series were in awe of the system and the number of features that they have managed to cram in. The highlights of the whole setup are:
1. OPS works beautifully and even shows the driving lines
2. MFD+ works, shows incoming call, radio info and song info
3. Movies on SD work
4. GPS
5. Ipod integration (works beautifully - any of you guys using sd cards for music, change over to an Ipod and it will sound even better)
6. GPS antenna stealth install
7. No wiring cut or crimped
8. Completely clean install, no mics or antennas hanging around on the dashboard area. Everything is in the OEM designated place or well worked into the available space.
9. All cables nicely bunched together and ziptied to keep it clean
10. IMPORTANT: There is no issue with the right hand side buttons on the steering wheel changing songs or controlling the N6. I think this may be only on Skoda cars.
Kudos to Sugesh and Amit for this install and for all of you guys out there looking to install a good system in your VAG cars, this is the place. Yes, they are a little more expensive than others, but what you get is a great product and a team who work with VAG cars everyday. They have all the equipment and access to knowledge under one roof and you can be sure that a professional job will be done.
On a side note, guys with VAG cars (specially VW/Skoda cars), will go nuts if they step into vagtune. If I had any more money on me that day, I would probably have ended up with a new steering and HL headlights.
Pics of the system to follow.